Townsend & Associates Inc Buys 13,531 Shares of Halliburton Company $HAL

Townsend & Associates Inc lifted its stake in Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL) by 15.9% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 98,476 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock after purchasing an additional 13,531 shares during the period. Townsend & Associates Inc’s holdings in Halliburton were worth $2,211,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in HAL. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 450.9% in the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 29,941,771 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $759,623,000 after purchasing an additional 24,506,472 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 217.4% in the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 4,641,111 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $116,770,000 after purchasing an additional 3,178,746 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in shares of Halliburton in the first quarter worth about $72,637,000. Pzena Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 134.7% in the second quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 3,734,069 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $76,100,000 after purchasing an additional 2,142,939 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 292.5% in the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 2,807,084 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $57,208,000 after purchasing an additional 2,091,872 shares during the last quarter. 85.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have issued reports on HAL. Melius began coverage on shares of Halliburton in a report on Wednesday, August 20th. They set a “buy” rating and a $41.00 target price on the stock. Susquehanna dropped their target price on shares of Halliburton from $30.00 to $27.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on shares of Halliburton from $28.00 to $26.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 23rd. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Halliburton in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Zephirin Group increased their target price on shares of Halliburton from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 2nd. Fourteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $30.26.

Halliburton Stock Up 2.0%

Shares of Halliburton stock opened at $22.25 on Monday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $22.63 and its 200-day moving average price is $21.65. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 2.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. Halliburton Company has a 52-week low of $18.72 and a 52-week high of $32.57. The company has a market cap of $18.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.40 and a beta of 1.02.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 22nd. The oilfield services company reported $0.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.55. Halliburton had a net margin of 8.37% and a return on equity of 21.45%. The firm had revenue of $5.51 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.43 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.80 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Halliburton Company will post 2.64 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Halliburton Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 24th. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 3rd were paid a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, September 3rd. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.1%. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 31.78%.

Halliburton Company Profile

Halliburton Company provides products and services to the energy industry worldwide. It operates through two segments, Completion and Production, and Drilling and Evaluation. The Completion and Production segment offers production enhancement services that include stimulation and sand control services; cementing services, such as well bonding and casing, and casing equipment; and completion tools that offer downhole solutions and services, including well completion products and services, intelligent well completions, and service tools, as well as liner hanger, sand control, and multilateral systems.